District 11 hears from disgruntled former Senator

Tom Smith rips Grassroots Arizona PAC

The GOP District 11 meeting last night was notable on several counts.

Jim Weiers, Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, was the guest speaker.

Rep. Weiers, a knowledgeable guest, is in demand around the state, so his compliments on the large turnout weighed against districts statewide, delighted the precinct committeemen. His instructive speech on legislative issues, the budget crisis and interaction with Gov. Napolitano was well received and generated a brisk question and answer session.

The other highlight of the evening was an impassioned presentation by the usually unflappable Sen. Tom Smith (ret.), who is an elected precinct committeeman in the district. The genial gentleman showed some of his U.S. Marine grit and high school principal authority when he stood before his fellows holding up a postcard mailed to him by the Grassroots Arizona PAC.

Smith’s name was listed as one of the people who would “help restore dignity, responsibility and acocountaltiy of the Arizona Republican party.” Recipients of these mailers were urged to vote for the names on the reverse side of the card.

The only problem is that Smith doesn’t believe those attributes are lacking in his party and he resented having his name, which he did not give authorization to use, exploited by this rogue organization.

Sen. Smith said he looked up the return address on the card in his PC file and found it belonged to John and Jane Lynch — who are instrumental in the PAC and its goal of attempting to oust long-standing conservative PCs.

These are some of Sen. Smith’s words as he spoke about the mailer:

“They besmirched my name. My name is sacred to me, like your name should be sacred to you. These people have no integrity, are despicable, unethical and dishonest.

I wrote them a letter which they did not answer, which is an example of their character. I never gave my approval to use my name. Any adult who will put another adult’s name on any document without that person’s approval, has no integrity, no honor and absolutely no common courtesy.”

“These people,” he said, “can get along much better with Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and John Murtha, than they can in the Republican party.”

We always thought you were a straight-up, guy, Senator. You’ve climbed even higher, publicly calling the folks behind the PAC to oust conservative Republicans exactly what they are.

13 Responses to District 11 hears from disgruntled former Senator

Why do you think Sen. Smith was the go-to guy on reconfiguring the offensive 9/11 memorial in Bolin Plaza.? People respect him and know him to be a man of honesty. Bravo to him for telling it like it is last night. All of the hooligans attempting to overthrow the hardworking conservatives elected in the precincts, deserve to be revealed for the shameful lot they are.

What a tragic time for our Republican party. We have a reprobate like Nathan Sproul attempting to damage a good man and his family on behalf of the open borders contingent. Then there is the five-day Republican who is bizarrely endorsed by Congressman John Shadegg PRE-primary, over two strong conservatives who Shadegg is hanging out to dry. And the Grassroots Arizona PAC is trying to overthrow other Republican elected precinct committeemen who hold to Reagan principles. Swell.

It’s beginning to feel like the land of Oz around here. Has anyone noticed this is all on the back of the McCain parade? What a coincidence!

This post does not mention the architect behind this whole operation. Ask Kenny Going. He can tell you because the “Bell of the Ball” is doing her level best to take the New York Flash out of the equation all the way out west in LD 12 by sending those same cards into Kenny’s precinct to defeat him.

And he is not taking too kindly to it. I speak of none other than Shiree Foster Verdone, a very close working partner of Nathan Sproul and fund raiser for Senators McCain and Kyl. Shiree has a nasty past which honed her cut throat skills for this type of an operation. She is very well qualified.

We live in LD-11. I am not a frequent reader of these internet articles. My neighbor is and she told me I needed to see this one. I thoroughly agree with former Senator Smith and I see that most of you do too. I hardly know what a precinct committeman is or does. I just know they (or you?) are Republican Party workers. And we have a choice of two kinds of Republicans. One choice is the John (What Platform?) McCain crowd and the Chairman (I like our conservative Platform) Haney crowd. My postcard from “Grassroots Arizona” (phony-balogna name) went in the trash can. I am voting for the conservative PC’s–my conservative neighbors. These imposters put up by McCain’s workers should be looking to celebrate our District leadership. Not looking to take them out. As far as I’m concerned McCain employs an entire staff of Nathan Sprouls. Mr. Smith, my name is just as important to me as you say it should be. And so is my vote. My vote is for the conservatives and not for the McCain amnesty crowd.

Isn’t it interesting? Usually when people speak the truth about Sproul, Verdone, Lynch, etc., there is an outpouring of defenders for their foul deeds. When Senator Smith says the same thing, it rings with so much authority from a person with impeccable integrity that they dare not even defend it.

Thank you Senator. We need to hear your voice more often in this fight for out Party and our state.

Wow! I received an invitation to have luncheon at the Arizona Biltmore Resort and Spa with John and Cindy McCain. They only want to charge me $1000. I guess that would include dessert?

For a mere $2,300 a person I get a 2008 lapel pin. I’m so excited!
But the best deal of all is for just $25,000, my honey and I can go to the pre-luncheon reception and have a photo taken with the enigmatic Arizona couple.

I wouldn’t miss this for the world. I’ve been an elected Republican precinct committeeman for over 20 years, and I have NEVER seen our senior senator. He has never attended a state meeting or even come to the state convention where his OWN national delegates were being selected.

I thought maybe he was like a shy bride hiding from her groom until the ceremony. Why else would he avoid contact with us? We are Republican party workers.

I got the invitation too and as I recall, before I threw it in the trash, it was Shiree Verdone who was doing the inviting. No problem, it has been 15 years since her brush with the law. Course Sproul is going 30 years back to pick up on something on Pearce which was not nearly as serious as the charge leveled against Shiree.

Think Nathan will call for a full disclosure on his cohorts past? The two of them make quite a team. Money and influence in the power circles are the golden rings that drive their ambition. Yep, that’s what we want Nathan, your idea of what the Party should represent….The Party of McCain and Kyl. God help us.

It is already the Party of Kyl, McCain, Flake and Shadegg, and Sproul, and Magruder and LeVecke, and Click, and Colangelo, and Pacheco and deceit like the deceptively named Stop Illegal Hiring initiative. Why the hell do you think we are in the mess that we are? If only we could restore some honesty, integrity and platform principles then we would have a Pearce Party. We can dream, can’t we?